Sunday, March 9, 2014

Time to play a little catch-up here re the dog situation in our house: poor old Louie died last summer, while we were away, and I was really sad that we weren't able to say goodbye to him. But he is resting in the backyard, under a big flat rock, in the grave that my son dug for him. Kind of nice to look out the window and see him there, actually. (Also - quote from our neighbour as Jeremy was digging manfully through the tree roots and rocks to make a hole big enough for 35lbs of dog: "you digging a grave over there or what?" He was mortified when the answer was, "yeah, actually".)

Anyway, it was kind of peaceful being down to just one dog, even though life with Vinnie is never that peaceful. There was that incident just after New Year's with the random, unleashed dog running up to him and engaging in a big fight that left Fred with a huge gash in his hand that required not one, not two, but FIVE visits to emerg for IV antibiotics, and a bill for about $3200 in total (think it's time for permanent residency and a health card, maybe?)

But still, just one dog, and one besides that is extremely easy-going in the house. And yet, as the New Year came into being, I started looking on petfinder.com at dogs...no real objective in mind, just browsing. For quite a while, no one really spoke to me, but then there was a beautiful brindle pit mix, that was described in such glowing terms, I had to have her. Adoption application filled out, looong wait, only to hear someone else had gotten there first. Okay. Next one: a hilarious greyhound/husky mix with blue eyes and cock-eyed ears (can ears be cock-eyed?). Adoption application, loooong wait, whoops, he's no good with cats! Maybe put that in your description, huh?

The universe appeared to be conspiring against us - we even made a trip to the local shelter on spec, just to have a look, and arrived just as they were closing. (Seriously, how convenient is it to close at 430 on a weekday?) Came back the next day at the right time, and every. single. dog that had been on petfinder had an "adopted" or "pending" sticker on their picture. Argh. But then a volunteer came out with two shaggy puppies on a leash, and offered to let us walk one of them. Fred said, "She doesn't do puppies". And I said, "I don't do puppies." And really? I DON'T do puppies, because they're a lot of work, and besides, adult dogs have a much harder time getting adopted. So that's been my policy all along. But we were there anyway, might as well walk one. So we chose the little girl, because she was marginally bigger, and I like big.

It was this puppy:

Suzy Q

And just like that, 5 minutes later I was filling out her adoption application. I was so extremely nervous that Vinnie would hate her, that I didn't watch the initial part of the meet n greet, because I was sure it wouldn't work, and I had fallen in love with this puppy SO HARD. But Vinnie was a champ, and they now love each other fiercely. Really fiercely, because sometimes their play fights sound deadly. But he is remarkably patient with her constant "Vinnie, Vinnie, I love you, play with me, Vinnie, ok? ok?"

She's also been surprisingly little work - came to us at 3 months almost completely housetrained, and now 6 weeks later there are no more accidents at all. She is a star at obedience class too. In my opinion, she is on her way to being another Best Dog in the Universe.